Gilbert & Sullivan - The Mikado / Eric Idle, Lesley Garrett, Richard Van Allan, Felicity Palmer, Richard Angas, Bonaventura Bottone, Susan Bullock, English National Opera
by John Michael Phillips
List Price:
Our Price: $22.49
You Save: $2.46 (10%)
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Category: DVD
See more DVD details
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD details
Actor: Bonaventura Bottone, Eric Idle, Felicity Palmer, Lesley Garrett, Richard Van AllanDirector: John Michael Phillips
Brand: A&E
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
Format: Color, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 130 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-12-26
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: A&E Home Video
DVD Reviews of Gilbert & Sullivan - The Mikado / Eric Idle, Lesley Garrett, Richard Van Allan, Felicity Palmer, Richard Angas, Bonaventura Bottone, Susan Bullock, English National Opera
DVD Review: Delightful!
Summary: 5 Stars
A gorgeous and funny production. Eric Idle as The Lord High Executioner and Richard Angas as The Mikado are both utterly preposterous. Never mind the three little maids from school! Never mind the impossible setting of an upper-crust, English tennis club. Scandalously delightful and superbly performed.
The audio quality could be better. But this is a once in a lifetime performance. Well worth collecting.
DVD Review: GREAT PRODUCTION
Summary: 5 Stars
As an avid G&S fan for the past 16 years, I can say I loved this production. I did not like the mis-en-scene, but the orchestra, enunciation, and acting where WONDERFUL. Highly recommended for G&S fans!!DVD Review: Poor Gilbert :-(
Summary: 1 Stars
Poor Gilbert! He must have turned over in his grave every day since this monstrosity was created.
Removing the opera from Japan and dressing the characters in British 1920s formal attire takes Mikado out of context, and renders it humorless and senseless.
Gilbert was a genius. The creator of this perversion is not!
DVD Review: Give it a watch...........
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm always leery of "new and improved" productions of the works of Gilbert & Sullivan. The originals are hard to beat. To my amazement, this version of The Mikado is actually very watchable and enjoyable! The producers stayed true, for the most part, to both the original story line and libretti (other than the fact they "moved" the story from Japan to England, and made a few very minor changes to the dialog). The performance of the musical score is outstanding - Sullivan would be proud. DVD Review: Virtue is Triumphant Only In...Theatrical Performances!
Summary: 4 Stars
"The Mikado" is arguably the most-performed of all the G&S operas. The current stage director of the Gilbert & Sullivan Society of Austin and renowned G&S scholar Ralph MacPhail said that not a day goes without the Mikado being performed somewhere in the world. I don't know if that's true, but "Mikado" is without question a very popular and frequently-performed comic opera. In addition, there are many different takes on it. There's Red Mikado, Hot Mikado, Swing Mikado, and recently the Mikado Project.
This version, with Monty Python's Eric Idle as Ko-Ko, is set in a seaside resort in the 1920s. (For those of you not familiar with the plot of Mikado, see my comment for a link to the G&S archives, as they summarize it far better than I could.) The setting, a 20s resort instead of ancient Japan, works surprisingly well. The costumes are enjoyable to watch, though I thought they went a bit heavy on the makeup for a filmed version. The highlight of the show is clearly Eric as Ko-Ko. His presence injects life into the show. Nanki-Poo and Yum-Yum do an adequate job, though I didn't think they particularly had a lot of presence. Katisha and the Mikado are both excellent.
I think producing it as a movie, rather than filming one of the stage performances, works against it somewhat. For it to work as a movie, the screenplay would have to have been considerably revised, which it wasn't, and so it never escapes its stage roots. As the Mikado says, "virtue is triumphant only in theatrical performances." Beyond that, my only major complaint was that in the Act I finale, the tap-dancing of the chorus drowns out the principals. Overall, however, this is an enjoyable production of one of the greatest comic operas ever written, and belongs on the shelf of every G&S fan.
Description of Gilbert & Sullivan - The Mikado / Eric Idle, Lesley Garrett, Richard Van Allan, Felicity Palmer, Richard Angas, Bonaventura Bottone, Susan Bullock, English National Opera
The irrepressible Eric Idle (Monty Python's Flying Circus) teams up with the English National Opera in this hilarious performance of Gilbert and Sullivan's beloved comic opera, THE MIKADO. This rollicking version of Gilbert and Sullivan's most popular tale relocates the action from ancient Japan to a 1920s English seaside resort. Here the rule of the Mikado is absolute--and often prone to whimsy. Ko-Ko (Eric Idle) is sentenced to death for the crime of flirting, but in a strange turn of events is instead named "Lord High Executioner." A delightful farce ensues as Ko-Ko can't behead anyone without first cutting off his own head. But by the second act, the Mikado demands an execution and Ko-Ko must delicately sing and dance his way around a messy situation involving the Mikado's son and his secret love Yum Yum. One of the best loved gems in all of opera, this charming production of THE MIKADO adds a unique twist to the timeless music--especially with the madcap talent of Eric Idle in his opera debut! DVD Features: A Source of Innocent Merriment: The Making of The Mikado; Downloadable Libretto; Cast Biographies; Interactive Menus; Scene SelectionJonathan Miller set his well-known production of The Mikado, staged for the English National Opera, in a British seaside resort of the 1920s. The result, complete with a chorus of gentlemen of Japan as cartoon-like British peers, emphatically underscores the Englishness of the satire. The occasional non sequiturs, like a bunch of gentry dressed for Ascot and singing in Japanese, are loonily fun, and no more absurd than the fantasyland Japan that Gilbert and Sullivan invented. The time frame, though, seems little more than an excuse for a smart black-and-white production design.
The show's main calling card is Eric Idle as Ko-Ko, the Lord High Executioner. Unfortunately, his star turn of a performance, like the production as a whole, is not as funny as it should be. There are loads of comic ideas, some of them effective (bellboys parading through the hotel lobby with "No flirting" signs), some dubious (Ko-Ko delivering a 1980s-updated "little list" song at a press conference), some worked beyond their shelf life (insanely posh accents). This video recording of a 1987 performance could have been better made; the chorus, badly miked, sounds as if it is far off-stage. The actors' heavy makeup and heavy mugging are reminders that the production wasn't originally created for the camera. Such staginess may take some getting used to, but it fits in nicely with the aggressive fakery characteristic of G&S. This revisionist Mikado is probably best after you've experienced more straightforward approaches. --David Olivenbaum
General DVDs
DVD Video
- Action & Adventure
- African American Cinema
- Animation
- Anime & Manga
- Art House & International
- Classics
- Comedy
- Cult Movies
- Documentary
- Drama
- Educational
- Fitness & Yoga
- Gay & Lesbian
- Horror
- Kids & Family
- Military & War
- Music Video & Concerts
- Musicals & Performing Arts
- Mystery & Suspense
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Special Interests
- Sports
- Television
- Westerns
Bestsellers in General DVDs
Man on WireRelease date: 2008-12-09; DVD
Best price: $13.37
Price in other shops:
Blue Planet: Seas of Life (Special Edition)Warner Brothers; Release date: 2007-10-02; DVD
Best price: $17.59
Price in other shops:
Expelled: No Intelligence AllowedRelease date: 2008-10-21; DVD
Best price: $8.44
Price in other shops:
Planet Earth & The Blue Planet Seas of Life (Special Collector's Edition)Planet; Release date: 2007-10-02; DVD
Best price: $52.97
Price in other shops:
The Beales of Grey Gardens - Criterion CollectionImage Entertainment; Release date: 2006-12-05; DVD
Best price: $13.60
Price in other shops:
A Haunting in ConnecticutRelease date: 2008-09-30; DVD
Best price: $3.53
Price in other shops:
Grey Gardens - Criterion CollectionImage Entertainment; Release date: 2001-08-14; DVD
Best price: $25.20
Price in other shops:
ReligulousLions Gate; Release date: 2009-02-17; DVD
Best price: $10.20
Price in other shops:
The BBC Natural History Collection featuring Planet Earth (Planet Earth/ The Blue Planet: Seas of Life Special Edition/ Life of Mammals/ Life of Birds)Warner Brothers; Release date: 2008-04-01; DVD
Best price: $85.99
Price in other shops:
Planet Earth - The Complete BBC SeriesWarner Brothers; Release date: 2007-04-24; DVD
Best price: $19.49
Price in other shops:
Similar DVDs, VHS Video, Audio CDs
The Mikado- Gilbert And Sullivan / Australian OperaRelease date: 2008-08-26; DVD
Best price: $16.72
Price in other shops:
Topsy-TurvyDVD
Best price: $16.20
Gilbert & Sullivan - The Gondoliers / David Hobson, Roger Lemke, Australian OperaRelease date: 2006-09-26; DVD
Best price: $16.49
Price in other shops:
Gilbert & Sullivan - The Mikado / Reed, Adams, Potter, Masterson, Godfrey, D'Oyly Carte Opera CompanyRelease date: 2003-09-30; DVD
Best price: $31.08
Price in other shops:
The Complete Annotated Gilbert & SullivanOxford University Press, USA; Published: 2005-10-27; Paperback; Book
Best price: $33.69
Price in other shops:
Gilbert & Sullivan - The Mikado / Conrad, Stewart, Revill, Opera WorldAcorn; Release date: 2002-10-22; DVD
Best price: $8.61
Price in other shops:
Gilbert & Sullivan - Pirates of Penzance / Anthony Warlow, David Hobson, Australian OperaRelease date: 2008-08-26; DVD
Best price: $16.73
Price in other shops:
Topsy-TurvyRelease date: 2000-06-20; DVD
Best price: $19.97
Price in other shops:
Gilbert & Sullivan - H.M.S. Pinafore / Trial By Jury - David Hobson, Anthony Warlow, Colette Mann, Tiffany Speight, John Bolton Wood, Richard Alexander, Opera Australia, State Theatre, The Arts Centre MelbourneRelease date: 2006-06-27; DVD
Best price: $16.13
Price in other shops:
Gilbert & Sullivan - The Pirates of Penzance / Kline, Ronstadt, Smith, Routledge, Delacorte Theater (Broadway Theatre Archive)Release date: 2002-10-22; DVD
Best price: $13.61
Price in other shops: